1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video recording and playing apparatus which records and plays a broadcast program, and it also relates to its control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there have been known apparatuses (automatic video recording apparatuses) for automatically restringing broadcast programs based on a search condition, historical information or the like beforehand set by a user. In addition, there is an apparatus which has a function to automatically delete a recorded program in cases where a recording region (an available or free space of a storage device in which recorded programs are accumulated) becomes short.
For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H09-070020, there is disclosed an apparatus that deletes recorded programs according to their priority in an automatic manner in cases where a recording region becomes short. In the apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H09-070020, the priorities of broadcast programs are calculated based on a genre-specific priority which is set for each genre of the broadcast programs, an individual program priority which is input by a user when the user makes a reservation of recording each broadcast program, and the time elapsed from the start or end of storage of the broadcast program.
In addition, there has been known a technique in which when a program which a user views and/or listens to (hereinafter simply referred to as “views”) is changed, (i.e., when a channel (in which a program viewed by the user is broadcast) is changed by the user), the program which the user was viewing before the channel change is automatically recorded.
For example, an apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-180861 has a plurality of tuners which receive broadcast programs, respectively. Thus, when a user performs a channel change, in cases where the user has been viewing a broadcast program of a certain channel before the channel change for a specified length or more, the broadcast program of the channel is continuously cash recorded after the channel change.
In addition, there has been known a technique that serves to prevent a user from overlooking a climax or exciting scene in a broadcast program by detecting the climax or exciting scene of the broadcast program with the use of a change of the volume level or a change of the viewing rate of the broadcast program, and notifying it to the user.